Ambrose Bierce was an author who had a way of writing a story that was deeply felt by its reader. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” the main character, Peyton Farquhar, is being hanged by war hardened soldiers. Farquhar has a vision just mere seconds before he dies, a vision in which the soldiers fire continuous rounds from cannon and rifle at him. “Chickamauga” is about a boy of just six years old who is a deaf mute. He wanders through the woods with a wooden sword in hand, playing soldier. He falls asleep and wakes to the sight of crippled, dying soldiers retreating from battle. In “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” and “Chickamauga” Ambrose Bierce makes the reader understand the utter darkness of death by using imagery, foreshadowing, …show more content…
Something more sad than beautiful. The sad thing disguised in this quote is a battle. One that leaves a group of soldiers bloody and leaning on their adrenaline to push them that last distance before dying of exhaustion and their wounds. The impact of this is that it leaves a bizarre taste in the reader’s mouth. A kind of bittersweet taste. One that encompasses the beauty of the trees, merry little birds, and the sadness of war hidden within the forest. The story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” includes foreshadowing that shows the reader the depths of what is to come next. Peyton Farquhar committed a crime which led to the punishment of death by hanging. Farquhar stood on the platform that would eventually give way and leave him hanging by a rope strung around his neck. Standing on that platform before being released into a world of unknowns, Peyton began to think:
"If I could free my hands," he thought, "I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance." (Bierce, Occurrence